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On the last Wednesday of every month, our church puts on a community dinner. It is free to whoever wants to come and join us and we usually provide one main course, several soup options, several salad choices, vegetables, bread and dessert. Last month we served over 95 members of the community at our dinner and we didn’t have much in the way of leftovers.

Tonight was our last community dinner for the year and the person in charge, Kathy, emailed me for entree ideas. Since I love macaroni and cheese, that is what I suggested. It’s also easy to make and kid-friendly. Kathy liked my suggestion and we met at the church around 3PM to begin prepping for dinner.

There were a few other key players there then: Marilyn and Gene, Pat and Dick, and Sue Anne. The dining area was beautifully set up and we had three great salads made when they all had to leave. That left me, Kathy, and Kathy’s friend, Shari, to get ready for dinner. At that point I think we all thought, “Yikes”, but we did not panic. We just crossed our fingers that all would work out. And it did.

We made a lot of food (because 95 guests had shown up last month!) but less than half of that showed up tonight, perhaps due to the unusually warm evening. That meant that we had an abundance of food and we were able to send folks home with food for another meal or two and they all thanked us for that.

Tonight I thought I would give my “pie of the day” to a family or group of friends at the dinner. There was one full table in the room with a family that spoke Spanish and I approached them with my pear tart. I used my best language skills but still needed a bit of help from their children to explain my pie project. They all were very gracious and thanked me. One of the daughters told me that she would even check out my blog. It was a very sweet moment.

And what followed was even nicer. As we headed back to the kitchen to attack the mountain of dishes that had been created, this family stayed and helped us put the chairs and tables away. We did not ask them to do this but we were so very grateful for their help. Who knows, we might still be there now if they’d not offered to assist us.

All in all, everything worked out just fine. Maybe it was because we were crossing our fingers… or maybe it was because we were doing something good and we had angels working on our side.

2 Responses to “Day 266: Community Dinner”

Karen was bleary eyed and up to her elbows in macaroni. We did have a few more volunteers that she and I were thankful to have last night. My sister, Kris helped serve and clean the kitchen. My nephew, Nathan helped served and did loads and loads of dishes with Bill, my father in law! Shari scrubbed the kitchen until it shined! Thank you, Karen, for not leaving after the macaroni and cheese was made! -Kathy

I would never abandon the ship! And what a crew! I was sure tired by night’s end but all warm and fuzzy for the happy faces of the community served. Thank you Kathy for all the shopping and organizing that you did and most of all for your fearless leadership.